johnlink ranks INTO THE STORM (2014)
Eh, what the heck, right? I mean, outside of the SyFy channel, there aren’t all that many movies out there about tornados. So if one gets a theatrical release it has to be at least half way decent… right?
I watched INTO THE STORM (2014) ON 4.25.15. It was my first viewing of the film.
INTO THE STORM has a group of actors who really want to make a decent action flick. It is privy to a director (Steven Quale) who is able to get his share of workable moments out of cliched scenarios. The movie uses special effects which are better than a lot of the junk thrown at the wall in B-action movies as of late.
The problem with INTO THE STORM, as is often the root problem of this sort of film, is the script. The general plot is workable: A team of storm chasers are converging on a super cell of major tornadoes in a midwestern city. But the details undermine the story, as that tornado cell is headed right for a high school graduation, where the vice principal (Richard Ermitage) is at odds with his underclassmen sons (Max Deacon and Nathan Kress). One of those sons likes a girl (Alycia Debnam Carey) and ends up wandering off with her to an abandoned building for some (surprisingly) clean home movie making.
Everything converges, but not until we establish that the over exuberant leader of the storm chasers (Matt Walsh) is at odds with his ‘too sciency’ meteorologist (Sarah Wayne Callies). We see where all of this is going, and everyone ultimately ends up in a storm drain together. We get there through cliched bit (the vehicle that just wants to get into the eye of the storm) after cliched bit (boy and girl stuck in underground trap together). We also get there through a whole lot of stiff dialogue.
But, again, the actors do their best to breathe life into it. A few moments land legitimately, even as the absurdity of the scenario is hard to overlook. The relationship between the son and the girl, specifically, plays much better on screen than it possibly could have on the page.
The movie also uses found footage. This seems like it would be a detriment, but Quale proves adept at making it mostly smooth. He even cheats sometimes, allowing a non-diegetic handheld camera to take in the action in a manner in which the found footage would have. It’s a serviceable solution to the genre, and one which is used too infrequently.
So this turns out to be an entertaining enough movie, with little memorability, and almost no rewatchability factor. But, as I say more than I don’t, there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes.
SCORES
FILM: 5; MOVIE: 7; ACTING: 5; WRITING: 3;
5+7+5+3+0=20
FINAL SCORE: 5 out of 10
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